Thursday, January 30, 2014

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, less than five percent of completed or attempted rapes against college women are reported to law enforcement. That’s 95 percent of sexual violence going unnoticed and therefore, unpunished.

California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, hopes to change that by proposing an assembly bill (AB 1433) that would require colleges to report violent crimes (forcible rape, willful homicide, robbery or aggravated assault) and hate crimes to local law enforcement for investigation unless the victim requests otherwise, according to a press release from Gatto’s office.

Originally, Gatto’s proposed bill required campus police to report these crimes to local law enforcement regardless of the victim’s wishes, but after speaking to sexual assault survivor and UC Berkeley Junior, Sofie Karasek, he amended the bill. Karasek told Gatto that if she knew that by reporting the crime to campus police the case would be transferred to local law enforcement, she never would have come forth to report it in the first place, according to an article in Newsweek.

A lot of the time, sexual assault survivors choose not to report the crime because they’re afraid of not being believed, fear reprisal, or simply don’t want to go through the long, tedious process of trial. It can be detrimental to the victims to have to relive details of the attack and most don’t feel comfortable opening up to prosecutors about their experience because it seems too personal to share, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

However, if the crimes aren’t passed on to the police department, often times the victims don’t see justice and the assaulters are able to victimize others. If this bill were passed, it would prevent future occurrences by not allowing the criminals to walk away without punishment and would dissuade other potential assaulters from committing the same crime.

According to Gatto’s website, a number of colleges in California were found to be allegedly discouraging victims from reporting their assaults in order to protect the reputation of the school. Now, multiple organizations and policymakers have taken notice and are stepping up to the plate in order to change things. This includes, not only Mike Gatto, but President Obama as well.

“To help them come up with better ways to protect and respond to sexual assault on their campuses, and then we’ll help them put those ideas into practice,” President Obama said in a press briefing at the Whitehouse, according to media reports.

The assembly bill Mike Gatto is proposing is only the beginning in a slew of action finally being enforced upon college campuses that fail to take these incursions seriously. Although we still have a long way to go in combating sexual assault, AB 1433 seems to be taking a step in the right direction.

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This article originally appeared in THE TEMPEST, the student voice of Solano Community College. You can read this article and more by visiting the Tempest HERE

Monday, January 13, 2014

By Dennis Romero - LA WeeklyIn what is being trumpeted as "the first purely crowdsourced piece of legislation in the United States," L.A. state Assemblyman Mike Gatto is inviting you, the average citizen, to help draft a new law.

But before you start jumping around and saying, Legalize it!, an idea that would surely dominate this exercise, there is a caveat:

Gatto has limited this experiment to probate law, the regulation that covers the wills and estates of the dead and how this wealth gets transferred.

This is why, his office states:

To narrow down the submissions in this first trial of the process, Gatto is asking bill drafters to focus their proposals on changes to the California probate code. This subject matter was selected because it is one where large numbers of specialists exist with an interest in participating (lawyers, CPAs, etc.), but also, since almost everyone has had some experience in handling the death of a loved one, large numbers of the public are also likely to have an opinion on how California's relevant laws could be improved.

But Gatto has warned folks who might get excited by the process that coming up with a proposal, no matter how just or far out, would only be the first step.

The bill would have to be green-lighted by numerous committees, both houses of the legislature, and Gov. Jerry Brown. That's an uphill battle even for no-brainer proposals like extending California's last-call-for-alcohol time beyond 2 a.m.

Gatto is excited nonetheless, saying this is a better way than sometimes-extreme citizen initiatives or even President Obama's own online petitions.

The lawmaker says:

This is a great way for people to have a voice in their government. Too often, special-interest groups draft legislation. In contrast, 'crowdsourcing' a bill on the Wiki platform will allow for a fully transparent brainstorming, drafting, and editing process that will incorporate ideas from a large group of people. The collective wisdom of the public will choose the final product.

Attorney Gloria Allred, left sitting and Dr. Caroline Heldman, professor of politics, along with 6 sexual assault victims at a news conference last April to announce the filing of a complaint against Occidental as a result of what the women allege is the college's "Deliberate indifference to rape victims." (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / April 18, 2013)

SACRAMENTO -- A new bill introduced Monday would impose new reporting requirements for crimes occurring at colleges and universities, a response to reports that several California schools did not fully disclose on-campus sexual assaults.

The bill, by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), would require colleges to report violent crimes and hate crimes on or near campus to local law enforcement for investigation, unless the victim of the crime requests that such a report not be submitted.

"Members of the public are tempted to think of universities as bubbles -- but they are not," said Gatto in an interview. "A crime that occurs there is just as harmful to society as a crime that occurs in someone’s backyard."

Gatto said his bill, AB 1433, was inspired by reports that a number of colleges in California, including Occidental College and USC, did not fully report crime statistics. Federal law requires colleges and universities to disclose to the U.S. Department of Education those statistics, which are then compiled into an annual report.

Gatto said his bill would improve on the federal law by getting the police involved when the crime is reported.

"What helps those victims is the crime actually being investigated by a competent law enforcement agency," he said.

"Colleges and universities are there to teach. They're not there to investigate crimes," he added. "The police forces clearly are experts."

At Occidental College in Los Angeles, the administration allegedly did not report on-campus rapes to law enforcement, apparently concerned that higher crime statistics would make prospective students choose elsewhere.

At San Jose State University, the administration admittedly failed to recognize the brutal abuse of a 17-year-old African-American student, who was targeted for his race, by his roommates.

The failure of administrators in these cases to recognize dangerous warning signs, properly train staff and take student-crime reports seriously has prolonged these students' misery and harmed their chances of seeing justice.

In the roommate abuse case, the young man was allegedly held captive in his room for short periods of time with a bicycle lock around his neck. The university's president has admitted that by "failing to recognize" the warning signs and not "intervening earlier," it "failed" this young man.

Similarly, the unwillingness of officials at Occidental to involve non-campus law-enforcement professionals in on-campus sexual assaults resulted in numerous students not receiving the medical attention they needed, and surely diminished the ability for them to someday see an arrest and conviction of their rapists.

If only the stories ended there. They don't.

Two Southern California colleges are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for their handling of on-campus sexual assaults and other violent crimes.

In addition, five U.S. campuses, including UC Berkeley and two Southern California campuses, are the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging violations of Title IX and the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires colleges and universities participating in federal financial-aid programs to disclose information about crimes that happen on or near campuses.

Victims of violent and demeaning crimes face numerous obstacles to a full recovery. For deeply personal reasons, some victims may choose not to report a crime to administrators or police. But those victims that do report should expect to be taken seriously, and for non-campus law enforcement to be notified immediately.

I think colleges should focus on instruction, and leave law enforcement up to the professionals. Victims of crime should not see their chances of justice hurt, nor their agony prolonged. I suspect that involving local police or sheriffs will result in greater prevention and threat assessment than if such things are left up to university administrators.

For these reasons, on Monday I introduced urgency legislation that would require colleges to promptly report on-campus crimes to local law enforcement. This legislation, AB 1433, strikes a balance between the right of a victim to not report a crime and the need for crime reports to be taken seriously.

It may not address all circumstances. Situations like the one at San Jose State demand additional training beyond the scope of this legislation to help administrators and staff to recognize the warning signs earlier.

But it will ensure that when students do come forward, their voices will not be silenced by bureaucracy or by concerns about student recruitment and retention.

Our college campuses may look like bubbles from the outside. But the crimes that occur there are no different in their effects on victims than crimes occurring elsewhere in our community.

Let's give independent law enforcement the knowledge they need to fight sexual assault and other crimes on campus.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, is chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the California State Assembly. He wrote this for this newspaper (Mercury News.com).

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Southland lawmaker has introduced a bill that would require teachers and other school staffers to undergo training on how to identify suspected cases of child abuse.

KNX 1070′s Margaret Carrero reports Assemblyman Mike Gatto wants the California Department of Education to provide guidelines for educators on how — and when — to alert authorities.

Under existing state law, a parent or guardian of a minor can face criminal charges for failing to provide clothing, food, shelter, or medical care “without lawful excuse.” Existing law also makes it a crime for a parent or guardian to desert a child under 14 years of age with the intent to abandon that child.

Assembly Bill 1432 (PDF) would require teachers and other school officials to pass an online course on how to identify and properly report abuse before the start of each school year.

Recent reports showed that certain abuse was prolonged because large numbers of school personnel were unaware of the processes and their responsibilities for reporting abuse, according to Gatto.

“We can’t allow unfamiliarity with the signs of abuse and the proper way to report it to serve as excuse for permitting child abusers to continue working in our schools,” said Gatto. “AB 1432 is a common-sense approach to the problem, since every year, education professionals will be reminded of their duties.”

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev has slammed California State Legislature member Mike Gatto for his proposal for recognizing the independence of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state.

Gatto submitted the proposal to California State Legislature on January 6.

Abdullayev strongly criticized the Armenian lobby in the United States in this regard.

Commenting on the issue, Abdullayev told local media that the federal government, not the states determine the foreign policy of the United States.

Abdullayev said the job of lawmakers is to defend the laws, human rights, norms and principles of the international law.

He noted that Mike Gatto, who submitted the resolution, does not hide that he works together with the Armenian lobby, he has announced it on his website.

"Human values and human rights should be above all, they should not be sacrificed for personal and political interests. Mike Gatto's country supports Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. The U.S. is one of the members of the UN Security Council, which condemns the occupation of Azerbaijani territories," Abdullayev said.

He said Gatto turns a blind eye to all these facts and acts following the directives of the Armenian lobby, which shows that he is biased and pursues his own interests.

Gatto's resolution, which recognizes the occupied Nagorno Karabakh as a "sovereign state", refers to the rights of people to self-determination. However, it doesn't indicate the current regime of the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" was established through the military occupation of the Azerbaijani territory and ethnic cleansing by the Armenian armed forces.

The Armenian media said Gatto works for closely with the Armenian organizations in the United States on legislative initiatives. He was also one of the authors of the resolution calling for the recognition of the so-called "Armenian genocide"...

New California Bill Would Change Rules for Reporting Rapes on College Campuses

The new legislation includes a caveat supported by rape survivors: sexual assault must be reported to the police unless the victim expressly requests otherwise.

A few days after the start of the new year, Sofie Karasek, a junior at the University of California at Berkeley, received a call from Southern California Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s office asking if she would testify on behalf of a bill that would force college officials to report all sexual violence and hate crimes to police...

...Karasek, a sexual assault survivor, seemed like an ideal supporter; in 2013, she and other UC Berkeley students filed a federal complaint accusing the university of failing to comply with laws that require speedy responses to sexual assault allegations and proper treatment for victims. But Karasek told Gatto’s staffer she never would've come forward to campus authorities if she knew they would go to the police. “I figured it would be much easier and less stressful to report to the school as opposed to trying to go to trial, especially since I was an out-of-state freshman,” she explained to Newsweek. “I wasn't interested in going through a long, arduous process with police, who I thought probably wouldn't believe what I was saying and wouldn't put their full effort into my case.”

After talking to Gatto’s aide, Karasek spoke with other sexual assault survivors, all of whom felt that pressuring students to work with the cops would hurt victims more than help them. She then urged Gatto to change the bill.

Gatto made an unusual move for a politician: he listened.

His revised legislation, introduced today as AB 1433, amends the state Education Code to require any report of a Part 1 violent crime (willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery or aggravated assault) or hate crime received by a college campus law enforcement agency to be immediately reported to the appropriate police or sheriff’s department unless the victim expressly requests that such a report not be passed along. If administrations don’t comply, Gatto said, they could be on the hook for liability damages for negligence.

“I’m basically ecstatic that we got to collaborate,” Karasek said.

Gatto told Newsweek he was inspired to draft the bill by recent events at Occidental, a private college near his district; more than 50 students and faculty signed on to two federal complaints last year accusing Occidental of deterring women from reporting assaults and failing to disclose assault claims to the federal government. The Department of Education is investigating both allegations. In October, Occidental admitted that the school had failed to report two dozen sexual assault allegations in 2010 and 2011.

It seemed to Gatto that Occidental withheld information because the campus didn’t want bad press. “That’s horrific,” he said. “That’s a really poor excuse to fail to investigate a crime like rape. We want to make sure administrations can’t keep stuff hush hush in hopes of making it seem like a school is safer than it really is.”

Although the federal Clery Act requires colleges and universities to disclose information about crimes that happen on or near campuses, a handful of U.S. campuses, including U.C. Berkeley, USC and Occidental, are currently the subject of federal lawsuits alleging violations of both the Clery Act and Title IX, another federal law that prohibits sex discrimination and sexual harassment in schools. A state law that would streamline reporting to local authorities seemed like a no-brainer to Gatto. His bill cites a 2011 survey by the Chicago Tribune that found only seven percent of the sex crimes reported on college campuses over six years resulted in arrests and less than three percent resulted in convictions, and declares that victims at California colleges must “have access to the expertise and investigatory powers of local police and sheriff’s departments… These local law enforcement agencies are generally better trained and better equipped to fully investigate these crimes… by involving non-campus law enforcement, we ensure victims of a respect for their privacy and a thorough investigation.”

...Although college women are four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the rest of the population, 95% of rapes on campus will never be reported, according to a Department of Justice report. That’s not just because of campus cover-ups; victims told the DoJ there were several reasons not to involve law enforcement officials, including fear of being treated with hostility by the police and “anticipation that the police would not believe the incident was serious enough and/or would not want to be bothered with the incident...”

...Gatto said he realized that he had to revise the bill after speaking to Karasek, who solicited advice from fellow survivors like Aryle Butler, another UC Berkeley undergraduate who told Newsweek she wouldn't have reported her sexual assault if she knew she’d have to deal with police.

It’s particularly unlikely that minority and undocumented students would ever feel comfortable seeking help from the police, Butler points out. “Yes, rape is a terrible crime, and you want to catch who did it,” she said, “but more importantly, you want to respect the feelings and wishes of the survivor...”

...Gatto said he expects a tough fight over the bill -- just about every member of the legislature has a major university in their district.

“We all want to hold universities accountable,” Butler said, “and make sure they can’t slip things under the rug for those students who do want to go forward.”

Politicians always pledge to listen to their constituents when drafting new bills. Most of the time, these promises manifest themselves by nodding politely when voters lecture them at town halls and then introducing whatever legislation powerful corporate lobbyists write for them.

But one Golden State lawmaker is taking the idea of accountability to a new extreme. California Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Burbank) has introduced a Wikipedia-esque website where his constituents can literally work together to write a bill that he will then submit for passage.

Using Gatto’s online legislative wiki, users can add to or remove text from the bill in question. The changes can be made anonymously; however, there is a section where participants can identify themselves by name and add a short bio.

The fist bill under consideration using this system is aimed at reforming California’s inheritance laws, specifically with regard to passing on trust funds from one generation to another.

“This is the first purely crowd-sourced piece of legislation in the United States. We have advocated for using technology as a tool for citizen engagement,” Gatto told the Los Angeles Times, noting that he hoped the ability for anyone with Internet access work on the bill would prevent special interests from taking over. ‟We have the same checks and balances as Wikipedia itself. The whole idea is it’s designed to be self-policing.”

“We’ve encountered people in various settings who want to contribute to the process. They haven’t had as much access because they might not have a lobbyist,” Gatto spokesperson Justin Hager told the Glendale News-Press. ‟If you have ideas, we want to hear them and give people the power to make a difference.”

In a press release, Gatto explained that he selected this area of the law as the test case for his wiki legislation project because it strikes a balance between having a lot of experts like lawyers and CPAs who could contribute, but also could engender a good bit of interest from the general public since virtually everyone has had to deal with some legal issue relating to the death of a family member...

California cities will be prohibited from ticketing people who park at broken parking meters. A new law for 2014 nullifies any city ordinance that had allowed the practice.

Listen to the interview with Assemblyman Gatto by visiting Capitol Public Radio HERE

Sacramento, CA - Until this last July, meter readers in Los Angeles ticketed people who parked at broken meters. Democrat Assemblyman Mike Gatto argued the practice should be illegal."There were a number of cities across California that were considering policies like this that would have undone almost 90 years of parking meter law," said Gatto."Since the dawn of parking meter, it was just an accepted fact that if the meter was broken and if the city had failed to fix it, that you could park there for free."~Assemblyman Mike Gatto The law protects against any meter failure including power or phone service interruptions to newer, multi-space kiosks......Assemblyman Gatto said Los Angeles was the largest city to allow broken-meter tickets, but other cities had considered or implemented similar practices. He calls them unfair."They do I guess what's called 'congestion pricing' in San Francisco where the price of certain digital meters goes up if there is fewer digital meters online," he said. "So, what was happening in San Francisco is they were leaving the meters broken so that the price of the existing meters could go up." The Los Angeles City Council repealed its parking ordinance in July -- after the State Assembly and Senate had passed Gatto's bill.The State Legislature will likely review this subject again in the next few years. The law expires in 2017.You can listen to the interview with Assemblyman Gatto and read more from Capitol Public Radio HEREMike Gatto is the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the California State Assembly. He represents Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake. www.asm.ca.gov/gatto

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles)
joined with people of Armenian descent around California and the world in
calling for the United States to recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic as a
sovereign state. The resolution, AJR 32, invokes strong language from the
United States’ own history regarding the rights of the people to
“self-determination and democratic independence.” If Gatto's resolution
passes, it would make California the most populous governmental entity to call
for Nagorno-Karabakh recognition, or to recognize it outright.

In 1921, the
Soviet Union illegally severed Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, from
Armenia, and placed it under the newly created Soviet Azerbaijani
administration. Seventy years later, the people there formed the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. On 6 January 1992, the democratically elected
legislature of the Republic formally declared independence. Since
proclaiming independence, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic has registered
significant progress in democracy building, including a presidential election
last year that was assessed by international observers as free and transparent.

Three
organizations that have already expressed support for the legislation are the
Armenian Council of America (ACA), the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA), and the Unified Young Armenians (UYA).

Assemblyman Gatto
has worked closely with each of these organizations on legislation he has
authored in the past, including a resolution calling for U.S. recognition of
the Armenian Genocide and on legislation extending the statute of limitations
for victims of the genocide to file insurance claims. The Assemblyman has
also supported events sponsored by each organization, including their stellar
efforts to raise money for Armenians in need around the world. "The
community is united in support of recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh," stated
Gatto.

“It has been my
privilege on this resolution to work with the leaders of the local Armenian
American community and their outstanding representatives,” said Gatto. “I
am especially honored to introduce this legislation on a day when Armenians
around the world are celebrating Christmas with family and loved ones.”

Once passed by
both houses of the California Legislature, a copy of AJR 32 will be transmitted
to the President of the United States, the Secretary of the United States
Senate, the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and to each
member of the California delegation to the United States Congress.

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles)
introduced legislation today to ensure that crimes committed on college
campuses are properly reported and investigated. The legislation, AB
1433, would require colleges to report certain crimes occurring on or near
campus to local law enforcement to investigate, if the victim does not request
anonymity.

The legislation
comes after several California colleges have been accused of covering-up
on-campus sexual assaults because of concerns that higher crime statistics
would lead prospective students to choose elsewhere. The unwillingness of
campus officials to involve proper non-campus law-enforcement professionals
greatly diminishes the chance that a perpetrator is arrested and
convicted. This, of course, can allow a perpetrator to strike again.

“Victims of crime
should not see their chances of justice hurt, nor should perpetrators be
allowed to victimize others, because a school values its public image more than
victims' rights,” said Gatto. “Colleges should focus on teaching, and
leave the investigation of crimes to the professionals -- local police and
sheriffs.”

Two southern
California colleges are currently the subject of a federal investigation for
their handling of on-campus sexual assaults and other violent crimes. In
addition to the federal investigation, five U.S. campuses, including three in
California, are the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging violations of Title
IX and the Clery Act. The Clery Act is the federal law that requires
colleges and universities to disclose (once a year, in an annual report)
information about crimes that happen on or near campuses.

In addition to
failing to report crimes, several California colleges have also been criticized
for failing to notice signs of dangerous or abusive criminal activity. At
one state university, the administration admittedly failed to recognize the
brutal, racially based abuse of a seventeen-year-old African-American student
by his roommates. The abuse was discovered only after the young man was
allegedly held captive in his room with a bicycle lock chained around his
neck.

“Crimes that
occur on campus should not be treated any differently than those that occur
elsewhere in our community,” said Assemblyman Gatto. "California law
needs to make sure that college administrators involve law enforcement when
appropriate.”

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced
legislation today to prevent child abuse in schools by ensuring that school
employees identify the abuse and stop it in its tracks. Recent reports
showed that certain abuse was prolonged because large numbers of school
personnel were unaware of the processes and their responsibilities for
reporting abuse. Gatto's legislation, AB 1432, would require teachers and
other school officials to pass an online course on how to identify and properly
report abuse, as a prerequisite before the start of each school year.

Enacted in 1963,
the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA) requires certain
professionals, known as mandated reporters, to report to law enforcement or
protective services known or suspected instances of neglect, or physical,
sexual, or emotional abuse. Mandated reporters include educational
professionals like teachers, instructional aides, teachers’ aides, school
administrators, and counselors. Despite CANRA’s requirements, current law
does not require school districts to train personnel on detecting and reporting
child abuse.

“We can't allow
unfamiliarity with the signs of abuse and the proper way to report it to serve
as excuse for permitting child abusers to continue working in our schools,”
said Gatto. “AB 1432 is a common-sense approach to the problem, since
every year, education professionals will be reminded of their duties.”

There have been
several incidents recently of unreported child abuse, where one or more school
employees were aware of the incident but failed to report it to law
enforcement. In the Redwood City School District, five staff members
knew, but failed to tell authorities, about a teacher’s abuse of two
five-year-old special-needs students. The abusing teacher was ultimately
arrested, and the five staff members were fired. In the Brentwood Union
School District, eleven employees did not alert authorities of a case in which
a special-education teacher, who had already been convicted of child abuse,
pulled an autistic student from his chair and kicked him. The incident
resulted in a $950,000 settlement paid by the district, and eight additional
students’ families have come forward with similar claims against the same
teacher.

“The system has
failed, when unreported instances of child abuse prolong kids' misery,” said
Gatto. “AB 1432is a simple, cost-effective means of making sure school
personnel know the techniques and their responsibilities for protecting our
children from predators.”